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 LONZO J. FUNKHOUSER, County Superintendent of public schools, is a prominent citizen of Pleasant Grove Township. He is the son of Wilson L. and Susanna (Thomas) Funkhouser, and was born Nov. 24, 1800, in this county. His parents spared no pains in affording their son an excellent education, and until the age of sixteen, Alonzo attended the common schools, also assisting his father in the lighter
duties of farm labor. He then attended Lee’s
Academy at Loxa, where he was graduated in
1878. He passed the first year after his graduation
in teaching in the public schools, and in the fall of
1879 entered the Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Ill., taking the law and literary course.
After giving three years of close application to
study he was graduated by the law department of
the University in 1882. Mr. Funkhouser is deeply
interested in the cause of education, and his inclinations led him to pursue that line of work, rather than the practice of law, and after leaving the University at Bloomington he spent four years in
teaching school and farming alternately. In 1880 he
was elected to his present office by a large majority.
It was his first experience in being a candidate for
any office, and resulted successfully. Mr. Funkhouser is a very efficient and fluent public speaker, and has evidently chosen the vocation best adapted to his mental abilities, which are of a high order. He is now engaged in arranging and perfecting a systematized plan of work for the county schools, by which it is proposed to establish a uniform course of study for the ungraded schools. When he first began teaching he received $28.50 per month for his services, but his rare ability in imparting instruction was soon recognized, and his salary was increased until he finally received $70 per month for teaching county schools. Mr. F. recognizes the importance of moral training as an adjunct of intellectual culture. He is a lecturer and earnest worker in the Sunday-schools, and is also actively interested in the- Methodist Church, of which he is a member. His influence in educational affairs has already been widely felt throughout the county, 205 teachers attending the county institute in July, 1887, which is three times the number of attendance in any previous year, and is an evidence of the deep interest our subject has awakened among the teachers. Mr. F. is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, and is a Royal Arch Mason, having been made Senior Warden at the age of twenty-three, and Master the following year. |
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